Armoured Avenger
by Benjamin J Brown
Summary: AU. Tony Stark is the victim of a strategic industrial attack at his home. After being implanted with the power source from it, he dons a high tech suit of armour he develoed, becoming Iron Man. I don't claim to own Iron man or related articles.
1. The Accident

Tony Stark sat at his desk in the basement lab in his house. He'd been working on the prototype designs for his companies latest device; the Stark Industries exo-skeletal multi-environment tactical suit, or 'Iron Man' as he'd nick named it. The 25 year old had been working on it for the last several months, since he had taken over the company following his father's death in a plane crash. There was no time for grief in the life of a multi-billionaire CEO of a multi-national corporation.

As he finished the designs on the suit, he pressed a button on his computer. A holographic humanoid avatar appeared in the room.

"Jarvis, send the specs to the automated manufacturing facility and have the finished device sent here. I want to give it a tune up in here, make sure everything's up to par before we get our test pilot in it." He said, before a tall African-American man in jeans and a leather jacket walked in "Speaking of, there's Rhodey. What brings you all the way out here?"

"Tony, I'm head of your security, I have to check up on you from time to time, it's in the job description." Rhodey replied "So, how's it going with that suit you were saying about?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Tony said with a grin, before laughing "I just sent the specs off for manufacture before it gets sent here for the final tune up before we put you in it for the test flight."

"Just flight?" Rhodey asked "No weaponry?"

"No internal ones, no." Tony replied "The only built in equipment are the flight systems, though the stabilisers are powerful enough to be considered their own form of weapon. Oh, and it has flares built in, as well as a minor shielding system generated from the chest ARC."

"Right…" Rhodey said "So the flight system works how?"

"Repulsors." Tony said "You know, like the ones me and my dad put in the Stark model XR-18 fighters to enable its flight systems. Now go on, ask what the ARC is."

"What's the ARC?" Rhodey said, rolling his eyes.

"The ARC is an Advanced Reactor Core." Tony replied "The design implemented into the armour's a prototype based on the larger one my dad designed four years ago. I just made it smaller for this. It takes a bit of power to initialise, but once it's powered up, it's self sustaining. Short of several mass power drains in under a minute, it won't die."

"So a super battery basically." Rhodey said "Trust you to use one of those."

Before Rhodey could reply, Tony was back at his computer, typing in more commands, apparently already designing a mark two suit before the mark one had been tested. Rhodey sighed and looked at the holographic avatar.

"Jarvis, make sure he doesn't work himself to death. I don't want him having a heart attack or developing an alcohol addiction because of stress." He said, before walking out as the avatar nodded, tossing back "See you later Tony."

"Yeah, see you later." Tony said, not bothering to look up before saying "I don't work too hard do I Jarvis?"

"No sir." The avatar replied "Unless you count this project, you hardly ever work at all. It's a surprise you don't go bankrupt."

"That was painfully honest." Tony said "Still, that's why I programmed you not to pull any punches in that department. Maybe it's time for a break."

Without another word, Tony got up, pulling a leather jacket off of the hook on the wall and walking out of the lab. He guessed this was the best way to keep Rhodey off his back, and he didn't want to think of what Pepper might do to him if he didn't take a break. Nothing like what she'd done at his birthday party, that was for sure. She wouldn't be drunk for one thing, and nor would he.

As he thought about that, he found himself in the kitchen, pouring himself out a glass of scotch. He wasn't normally one for that drink, but he needed a break. He put the bottle back down, placed the glass under the ice dispenser and pressed the button. As he did, there was a clicking noise, followed by an explosion of metal, glass and ice. He found himself trying to get up in spite of the pain in his chest before collapsing to the floor and passing out.


	2. Modifications

Tony came too in what appeared to be a high tech hospital room. It looked like something from a sci-fi movie. He sat up and felt a dull pain in his chest. He looked down and was met with a dull glow. He sat up abruptly, wincing in pain as he did.

"I see you're awake." A woman's voice said, causing him to look up.

Stood there was a red haired woman, mid-twenties wearing a white blouse with dull grey skirt.

"Pepper, what's going on?" He asked "Where am I? What's with the glowing circle in my chest?"

"There was an explosion at your house." She said "We don't know who was responsible but Rhodey's working on it. As for the glowing circle, it's the ARC we had to cannibalise from the tactical suit to power the repulsor device preventing the remaining pieces of glass and metal the surgeons couldn't remove from your chest."

"Well, take them out and take it out!" Tony said, panicking slightly.

He had no idea what the ARC could do if inside a living body. Heck, he didn't know what it could do in a _dead_ body.

"Tony, I know you're panicking, but we can't take it out." She said "If we do, the glass and metal will reach your heart and you will die."

"And if you leave it in, I might die!" He said "Did anyone consider that?"

"Yes, they did." She replied calmly "We were told it was a potential possibility, but me and Rhodey both agree might is better than will."

"I guess so." Tony said, pouting slightly.

He hated it when someone else was right, especially if it meant he wasn't. Suddenly, something occurred to him.

"Wait, if the suit had the ARC removed, how can it be tested? I didn't design those things to be taken out and put back in whenever and however you like." He said "It takes time, effort and more money than it costs to build the suit."

"So build a new one." She said "Not like you're strapped for cash."

"True." He said, a small grin beginning to appear on his face "But that reactor was designed as a one of a kind. I altered the design to increase power output. Maybe… No, that'd be dumb."

"What would?" She said, before her eyes widened "Oh no, you are _not_ testing it yourself!"

"Why not?" He said, smirking "I _might_ die anyway, so why not take a chance?"

"Because if you die then there's problems." She said, before going slightly red "At the company, I mean."

"Just face it Pep, you'd miss me." He said, smirking even more.

"I would not miss you." She said.

"Would too." He shot back.

"Would not." She retorted "I just hate looking for jobs."

"Don't worry, you'd be fine." He said "I don't choose just anyone as my personal assistant you know."

"I was the only candidate you interviewed." She said "Unless you count the blonde who came out trying to get the straps on her dress back on straight."

"She counts." He replied.

"What was her name?" She asked.

"Why's that important?" He said, not sure of the answer to her question.

"She so didn't count." She said, smiling triumphantly "Now, go to sleep, and no more thinking about testing the suit yourself."

"My suit…" He said, before laying back and letting himself attempt to get back to sleep.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

A few hours later, Tony was walking out of the medical facility wearing surgeon's scrubs. He'd snuck out of his room and swiped the clothes from a storage cupboard. Pepper had told him that the ARC had been removed from the armour, so it had to be at the Stark industries building; it was the only place within 100 miles that had the facilities to perform the complex operation without causing a catastrophic overload.

Within a couple of minutes, he'd flagged down a cab and was at the building 45 minutes later. He walked inside the building, looking around. He hadn't actually been there in about two months, plus however long he'd been out for. He looked around for a second longer before clocking the room marked 'project 39'.

"Jarvis." He said quietly as he walked into the room, seeing the holographic avatar appear "Begin making the following modifications to the suit; alter the power induction system to allow for external absorption of energy from both the onboard solar capacitors and ARC energy absorption from inside the chest piece."

"Sir, those modifications could prove detrimental to the power output of the suit." The avatar replied.

"Well, I designed it, and if I'm right, it'll increase the maximum power consumption." Tony said "And we both know I am. So do it. Remember, ARC absorption inside the chest piece but at no higher than 75% of maximum tolerance for a miniature ARC without power drain unless the onboard user specifies."

"The modifications will take 2 hours." The avatar said.

"Good." Tony said, moving over to a computer terminal and pulling up the files regarding the suit, tinkering with design elements and saving a separate file based on the modifications he was making, allowing comparison and contrast of the two designs.

After finishing comparing the designs and making notes on the potential pros and cons of both, he leant back in the chair, slowly dosing off, but not before saying "Jarvis, wake me up when it's done."


	3. Test Flight

"Sir, the modifications are complete." The polite automated voice said, waking Tony up.

"Great, bring it in." He said, stretching and then getting up as a silver armoured suit was brought in.

It was sleek, with a polygonal muscular structure. In the centre of the chest, it had a circular gap. There were multiple obvious moving parts, including multiple obvious flaps on the back of the torso.

"Okay, suit me up." He said, grinning.

"Sir, the suit wasn't designed to go over those kind of clothes." Jarvis replied.

"Fine by me." Tony said, moving over to a desk and reaching behind it, pulling out a black metallic body suit that moved as if it were fluid and walking out of the room with it, calling back "I'll put this with it then. This is what it was designed for."

Ten minutes later, Tony came back in wearing the black metallic suit. He had modified it with a gap for the circular ARC in the chest

"Okay, where do you want me?" He said.

"Please stand on the centre platform sir." Jarvis said.

"Okay then." Tony said, stepping onto the platform "Suit me up."

"Yes sir." Jarvis replied, as several large robotic arms came out from beneath the platform, disassembling the armour and beginning to re-assemble it on Tony.

Two minutes later, the suit was tightened up and the robotic arms were retracted as the faceplate came down from on top of the helmet. A few seconds after that, the heads up display came up inside the helmet.

"Power systems are online sir." Jarvis said.

"Good." Tony replied, smirking under the faceplate "Retract the skylight, I'm testing this baby out now."

"Sir, that's not a good idea." Jarvis said "The flight systems are untested at this size and configuration."

"Jarvis," Tony said "this is what I designed the suit for. It'll work. Now open the skylight."

"Opening skylight." Jarvis said as the glass centre of the roof slid up and out of place.

"Don't wait up." Tony said, opening his palms so they faced down and shooting up.

He flew straight out, turning left as he got out of the roof. He flew straight ahead before shooting up again and then dive bombing, levelling out a second before he hit a roof top, narrowly avoiding it.

"Sir, that stunt you just pulled sent the polarity of repulsor flight systems out of alignment by point seven-five percent." Jarvis said "Odds of loss of control over fifty-five percent."

"Compensate." Tony said, feeling a deceleration "Jarvis, I said compensate, not reduce power."

"Sir, to compensate, I had to reduce power input to repulsor systems by twenty-five percent." Jarvis said "If you wish, I can attempt returning them to full power, but that may result in full blowout of repulsor flight controls."

"Do it." Tony said, feeling himself go into a counter clockwise spin "Let me guess; stabiliser blowout?"

"Yes sir." Jarvis replied as Tony levelled out "Both stabilisers are now offline. Sir, I suggest reducing flight speed to allow greater control."

"Fine…" Tony said "Take me back to the lab."

"Yes sir." Jarvis said as Tony felt himself turn around "ETA 75 seconds."

A moment later, when Tony landed and had the suit removed, he looked at Jarvis' avatar.

"Jarvis, I need that power problem fixed. What was the cause?" He asked.

"The primary cause was the shield wasn't allowing the thrusters to work as they were intended." Jarvis said "My suggestion is to remove the shield entirely."

"Let me think about that for a moment." Tony said, going to a monitor and pulling up all the figures "Modify the shield to not be continually active while powered. Also, allow it to be routed to a single part of the armour in the event of crash landings."

"Yes sir." Jarvis said "Perhaps I should modify the flight systems to be able to go faster than light while I am making the modifications."

"Jarvis, don't make me remove those humour subroutines I gave you. You know I hate sarcasm." Tony said "Coming from anyone other than me, that is."

"Yes sir, what was I thinking?" Jarvis said "I will inform you when modifications are complete."

"Good." Tony said "Have it shipped to my lab at home. I presume that's being repaired?"

"Repairs are at seventy nine percent completion." Jarvis said "In the time it takes you to get there, it should be up to eighty five percent."

"Is the mini-bar fixed?" Tony asked.

"Yes sir, miss. Potts and mr. Rhodes insured that was the first thing to be repaired.

"Good." Tony said "See you at home honey."

He walked out of the lab, pulling on a big coat as he went. He stepped outside and flagged down another cab, taking it home. He had some things to do there.


	4. Back at Home

Tony walked into his home. The place was still a bit of a mess, but not as bad as it must have been before the repair work had been done. He walked over to the bar. It had been restocked. He wondered why but decided he could think about that _after_ a martini.

He mixed up his drink and poured it into the glass. As he took a sip, Jarvis' holographic avatar appeared.

"Sir, I've completed the modifications to the design that you requested." The avatar said "Would you like me to show you a holographic render?"

"Sure." Tony said, seeing a slightly edgier version of the silver armour appear "Silver doesn't quite suit it. Try gold."

The render shifted, becoming gold. Tony looked at it for a second. It looked okay, but a bit ostentatious, even by his tastes.

"Okay, try adding a bit of green in there." Tony said, with a neon green appearing on parts of the armour, leaving the only predominantly gold part the faceplate, though there were gold parts on the arms and legs "Oh no, that's horrible. Let's try a bit of, um…"

He looked around for a moment. He needed a good colour to go with the gold. He took a look on the desk. It had had some pictures from his office moved there. Including a picture of him and his father with the model rocket he'd built when he was five.

"Tell you what, try throwing a bit of red in there. Like the rocket me and my dad built." He said, seeing the green replaced with red "Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Get it built in the lab downstairs and tell me when it's done."

"Yes sir." Jarvis said "Will there be anything else?"

"Yeah." Tony said "Any good parties going on in town?"

"Well sir, there's the Iraq veteran's gala being held in the Stark Hotel in town." Jarvis replied.

"Sounds good." Tony said "Invite only event? Never mind, I'm the reason half those guys are there, of course I'm invited. Besides, the hotel's got my name on it, I own the place."

"Actually sire, it is an invite only event." Jarvis said "You were on the guest list, with a plus one."

"Okay then." Tony said "Get Rhodey on the horn, he needs to get out more."

"Getting him on the 'horn' sir." Jarvis said, before there was a slight crackling noise from the phone line being on the speaker system.

"Hello?" Rhodey's voice said through the speakers.

"Hey Rhodey, how you doing?" Tony said "Listen, I'm bored so we're hitting a party. Meet me at the Stark Hotel in half an hour."

"Tony, you're recovering from major surgery, is a party such a good idea?" Rhodey said, concern evident in his voice.

"Rhodey, stop being suck a stick in the mud." Tony said "Just meet me at the hotel in half an hour."

"But-" Rhodey began.

"Hey, you're meant to be my head of security, doesn't that kind of mean you need to make sure of my welfare?" Tony cut him off.

"I suppose so…" Rhodey said, his tone making it evident he wasn't liking where this was going.

"Well then, surely it's your job to make sure I'm safe." Tony said "See you at the party. Jarvis, end the call."

The line disconnected. Tony grinned to himself. Rhodey was a certified stick in the mud for the most part, but he took his job seriously. He'd come to the party, even if he counted it as on the clock. If he wasn't careful, he might even end up enjoying himself, but Tony wasn't going to bother betting on that.

"Okay, Jarvis." Tony said "Is my wardrobe still intact?"

"Yes, sir." Jarvis said "Your clothes have all been dry cleaned and pressed. Which one would you like?"

"Let's go with the black Armani." Tony said as he walked through into his bedroom, adjacent to the living room and picking up the suit that had just came out of a cupboard on a rail that had clearly just extended "Thanks. Have the Gallardo ready to go in five."

"Yes, sir." Jarvis said again "Would you like me to contact you when the suit is complete?"

"Yeah." Tony said as he did the trousers of his suit up and set about doing up the shirt, before thinking about it for a second "On second thoughts, no. I'll check it in the morning."

When he was finished getting changed, he walked out of his room and went down the stairs into his garage. He walked up to the red sports car and got in, starting it up.

"Don't wait up." He said before shooting out of the garage and off down the road to the party.


	5. The Party

Tony pulled up to the front of the Stark hotel and stepped out, allowing the valet to get in the car. He looked around for a second before a hand clapped him on the shoulder. He turned to see a thin bald man about twenty five years his senior wearing a brown suit with a white shirt.

"Tony Stark." The man said with a small smile "I'd heard you'd died."

"Sorry to disappoint you Obadiah, but you're not getting my company that easily." Tony said, smirking at him "A couple of days at the hospital and I'm good as new. Maybe even better."

Obadiah Stane was a financier, and, unfortunately, a long standing associate of Stark Industries. It was no secret that he wanted to buy the company out from Tony, but they had to maintain a level of politeness to one another when in public; a bad image meant bad business.

As Stane was about to reply, Rhodey pulled up in his Audi and got out, letting the valet take his car. He walked up to them and grinned at Stane.

"Sorry Stane, do you mind taking your hand off my boss?" He said with a smirk "Don't make me pull that move that beat your kid in the final wrestling match of high school during our senior year."

"Oh yes, what was it they called you Rhodes?" Stane said with an obviously false smile "Oh, I remember. The war machine. Always expected you'd go into the military, skills like yours."

"Who'd keep an eye on Tony if I did that?" Rhodey said "Certainly can't rely on you for that."

"Okay, Rhodey, I think we should go get a drink." Tony said "Pleasure seeing you again Obadiah."

"Of course." Stane said as Tony and Rhodey walked inside.

When they reached the bar, Tony ordered himself and Rhodey a martini and a bud, respectively. After getting the drinks and handing the barman the money, he turned to Rhodey.

"Listen, buddy, I know you don't like Stane, I don't particularly either, but we need to grit our teeth and bare it." He said "Now, who else have we got around here? I see Osborn and his wife, looks like he left the kid at home though. Some military brass, General Ross, did he ever catch that scientist who used to work for him and went AWOL?"

"I wouldn't know." Rhodey said "Strictly speaking, we're not meant to know these things. How you found out is a mystery to me."

"Go to the right bars, you can learn a lot." Tony said "His assistant was very helpful, she even gave me his personal line, that was a good, uh, _business_ deal."

"Uh huh." Rhodey said, giving Tony a sceptical look as he took a sip of his beer "Listen, what you do in bars is your business Tony, I don't want to know."

"Well, I think she's about to find out." Tony said, nodding to a red haired woman in a short, strapless dress "Looks European. I'm going to bet French."

"I'd take Russian." Rhodey said.

"Want to make a bet on that?" Tony said "She's French, I win, she's Russian, you win."

"Usual stakes?" Rhodey said.

"Loser buys the pizza?" Tony said "Sure, why not."

That was the one time Rhodey wasn't a stick in the mud; when he and Tony had differing opinions. Then he was willing to make a friendly wager, but that was about it. Tony walked over to the woman and smiled at her.

"Hi." He said, holding out a hand "Tony Stark. I organised this, or my company did anyway."

"Natalia Romanoff." She said in a Russian accent, shaking his hand "I'm here on behalf of my boss."

"Ahh, Russian, I thought so." Tony said with a grin "My friend thought you were French but I told him you had to be Russian."

"Is that so?" She said, raising an eye brow "You obviously have a good eye, Mr. Stark."

"I try." Tony said, hiding his drink "Well, I'm in need of another drink, can I get you one?"

"Funny, I thought you just put it behind your back." She said with a wry grin "But you may get me one."

"Ooh, you're good." He said, gulping half his drink down "I like that."

"I'm sure you do." She replied "Now, are you going to get me this drink or not?"

"Of course." He said "But you've got to come to the bar as well."

"Very well." She said "Just no, as you would say, trying to take advantage."

"Me, try to take advantage?" Tony said "Never."

He was lying, of course. He had been known to take advantage of women when they were drunk and he dared to say he probably would again. In fact, he couldn't even say it hadn't crossed his mind here. Not that she'd find that out.

He led her to the bar and ordered them both a martini. He handed the barman the money and handed her the drink. About an hour and a dozen martinis later, Rhodey came over to them.

"Tony, I think you've had enough." He said.

"Oh, don't be such a stick in the mud buddy." Tony said, his words slightly slurred "Natalia Romanoff, meet James Rhodes. Rhodey, this is Natalia. She's Russian."

"Really, I never would've guessed." Rhodey said, taking Tony gently by the arm "You'll have to excuse my friend, he sometimes drinks a bit too much."

"Hey, I'll decide what's a bit too much." Tony said as he moved away from the bar, nearly collapsing but being saved by Rhodey's grip "See, that was a demonstration of what it'd be like if I had had too much. I've had just the right amount."

"Yeah right, let's see if you're still saying that in the morning." Rhodey said "I'm sorry ma'am, Tony's going to have to leave now. I'm sure he'll call you."

Rhodey half dragged, half carried Tony out. He placed Tony down in the front passenger seat of his Audi as it was brought round before getting in the driver's seat.

"You throw up over the leather, you pay for it to be cleaned." Rhodey said as he pulled away from the front of the hotel and headed off towards Tony's home.


	6. Mark Two

Tony slowly came too in his bed at home. He looked down. He was still wearing the suit trousers and shirt from the night before, but the blazer, tie and shoes had all been tossed off onto the floor. He looked around for a moment before remembering what had happened the night before.

'_Crap'_ he thought to himself _'I made a total ass of myself in front of that woman.'_

He slowly got out of bed, rubbing his head as he did. He walked through to the living room, finding Rhodey asleep in the sofa. He walked over to his mini bar and pulled out a soda tap from underneath it. He pulled two pint glasses down from the mini bar and poured a pepsi for himself and a diet pepsi for Rhodey.

He had no idea why Rhodey preferred diet; Tony couldn't stand the stuff. Still, it was up to Rhodey to decide what he drank; as long as he could do his job, Tony didn't really care too much.

He walked over to Rhodey and nudged him in the shoulder with his elbow, telling him to move over. Rhodey groaned slightly but complied, swinging his legs round off of the sofa and sitting up.

"Morning sleepy." Tony said, handing the other man the drink before smirking "You realise that pulls out into a bed, right?"

"I do now." Rhodey said, rubbing his neck "Do you know how uncomfortable that thing is? I would've thought someone with as much cash as you could afford a more comfortable sofa."

"Yeah, well, it's recently been remodelled, and that was _before_ the accident." Tony replied with a smirk "That was the only sofa that they had that matched the décor of the room, and the guy who usually custom makes all that stuff for me was on vacation."

"Yeah right." Rhodey said "Mind if I stick on the TV?"

"Be my guest." Tony said, passing Rhodey the remote "Anything in particular you want to watch?"

"The news." Rhodey said as he turned the TV on and flicked the channel on "What else?"

"Rhodey, if you were any more boring, you'd be in a museum." Tony said with a smirk as he looked at the screen, seeing the headline at the bottom "Well, that looks interesting."

The headline read 'hostage situation on air force one'. Tony raised an eyebrow as he turned up the volume.

"The terrorists have said they will execute the hostages, starting with the president, if any military action is detected or if their demands are not met." The woman on the screen said "Currently, correspondents at the white house are refusing to comment and denying allegations of considering an armed assault."

At that point, Tony turned off the TV. He got up and walked out of the room. Rhodey sat there for a moment before deciding to follow Tony. He got through into the lab in time to find Tony in the metallic black body suit.

"Tony, what is that thing?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"You saw the reports." Tony said "If they detect any kind of military attack, they're going to kill the president. If my calculations are correct, and they always are, then if I approach air force one in the armour, they'll never see me coming."

"So you're planning on using the armour?" Rhodey said "Has it even been tested?"

"Sure it has." Tony said "Well, the mark one has. This'll be the mark two's test run."

"So you're planning on testing it yourself?" Rhodey said "Do I want to know about the test of the mark one?"

"Not really." Tony said as he stepped onto the platform where the devices for suiting him up were and beginning to have the red and gold armour placed on him "You're going to like this."

Rhodey stood there watching as the armour was assembled on Tony. A moment later, Tony was fully suited up. He stood there, the faceplate up, and grinned at Rhodey.

"What do you think?" He said as the faceplate fell into position, the eyes lighting up and his voice coming through a mechanical filter, making it sound some what deeper with a metallic undertone "Pretty sweet huh?"

Rhodey just stood there looking at the suit. He had to admit, he was impressed. He thought the silver suit had looked better and it might have been a better idea to give that a black trim instead, but it still worked.

"Anything you need me to do?" Rhodey said.

"Stay on the line and give me the play by play." Tony said before taking off into the air and shooting out of the lab at high speed.


	7. I am Iron Man

Tony approached Air Force one fast. He took note of the readouts on the armours HUD and began to think about his options.

"Jarvis, slow to match speed and tap into the control systems." He said "Loop their readouts and bring out the landing gear. Take us in through there."

"Connecting to Air Force one mainframe. Connection established. Opening landing gear hatch." Jarvis said before it opened and the landing gear came out, Tony being flown into the bowels of the plane and ending at a walkway above the landing gear "Disengaging thrusters."

Tony quietly and slowly descended to the plated floor of the walkway as the landing gear retracted. He checked the HUD for information on where he was.

"Okay, where am I in relation to the terrorists?" He asked, not waiting for a response "Give me a readout."

A three dimensional map appeared on the HUD, showing a yellow dot where he was and a number of red dots scattered throughout the plane. With one of the groups of dots was a small group of blue dots, signifying hostages.

"Okay, put it down." Tony said, the map disappearing after taking in the directions "Let's get a move on."

He began walking through the plane, small sounds being made as the metal of the armours boots made contact with the plush carpet. He ascended the staircase down the corridor from where he started, turning the corner and being met by a pair of men in black body suits carrying assault rifles. They pointed the weapons at Tony.

"Let me talk to them." Tony said "Gentlemen, give yourselves up and I promise you'll not be harmed."

The two men looked at each other then back at Tony, who realised he must look like some kind of robot to them. Then, they both pulled the triggers on their weapons, the bullets hitting the armour and bouncing off of it. Tony took a step towards them, the angles the bullets were ricocheting off of his chest piece, putting holes in the walls. As he got close enough, he reached towards the men's weapons, bending the gun barrels, preventing them from firing anymore.

"I warned you." He said before picking the men up by their weapons and tossing them against the walls to his left and right, knocking them out.

He walked down the corridor, entering the room where the hostages were according to the map. There were several more men in body suits with guns. Tony looked at the HUD readouts. According to the readouts, the odds of him taking out all the terrorists before they killed the hostages were low. Their positioning would let him take down four of them using the repulsors in his gauntlets but the odds of him then getting to hit the other four that were in front of him were virtually zero. Then it hit him.

"Jarvis, divert shield power to chest ARC." He said, the glowing circle getting brighter and beginning to hum with the excess charge "Prepare to discharge the excess energy as a concentrated beam."

"Sir, the odds of that stopping all terrorists before they begin shooting is slim to none." Jarvis said.

"I know, which is why you're going to set the beam as a widespread discharge." Tony replied "Shutdown hand repulsors and let me talk to them."

The repulsors in his gauntlets stopped glowing ad he raised his hands in the air.

"Terrorists, please surrender now." He said, the men all turning to face him and apparently being surprised by his appearance "If you do, I will not harm you."

The lead terrorist responded by raising his gun, his fellow terrorists following suit.

"You will kneel and prepare to be executed, scum!" The lead terrorist said, his accent not sounding quite right.

"Jarvis, run his accent through the voice recognition software." Tony said as he slowly complied with the terrorist's request "Is that accent of his real?"

"No sir." Jarvis said "He appears to be an American imitating a middle eastern accent."

"Thanks Jarvis." Tony said "Now, release excess energy, low yield."

A widespread blast of light blue energy, the same colour as the armours repulsors, ARC and all other external lights, fired from the circular ARC. It knocked everyone to the floor as Tony got up. The terrorists quickly jumped up, now wary of Tony.

"Okay, the president and the other passengers are safe." Tony said "Hit these guys again, this time set it higher, but only enough to stun them!"

Another blast fired, knocking out the men. Tony walked over to the president, holding out a hand.

"Mr. President, I'm T- I mean, I was sent here to ensure your safety." Tony said as he helped the president up "Are you okay?"

"I am now, thank you." The president said "So, who exactly are you?"

"Me? I'm uh," Tony said, not sure what to say before finally saying "I am Iron Man!"

After saying that, Tony left the area, walking back down to where the landing gear was. On the way, he bumped into a bald African American man wearing black pants, black shoes, a black sweater and a black leather trench coat, a gun slightly visible underneath it. He had slight scarring around his left eye, which had an eye patch over it. He looked Tony up and down.

"Who the hell are you?" He said.

"Iron Man." Tony replied before walking off and disappearing into the area with the landing gear to exit the plane.

The man waited a minute before walking through to where the president was. He was surprised at the sight of the terrorists all sprawled out over the floor. He raised his watch to his face and pressed a button on the side of it

"Fury to helecarrier." He said into the watch "Get me everything you can find on a 'Iron Man'. On any server, screw data protection. This guy or thing is of extreme interest and I want to know everything about him. Before anyone _else_."

…**..**

**Okay, hope you liked it. So, quick recap; Tony's finally officially Iron Man, he's met Nick Fury (but doesn't know it yet) and what do you think Fury's comment means? Do you think someone else has taken / will take an interest in Iron Man? You'll have to wait until chapter 8 to find out. BJB**


	8. Welcome to SHIELD

Tony came upstairs out of the lab, being greeted by a very perturbed looking Pepper. He grinned at her, her expression still serious.

"Tony, that was reckless and suicidal and just plain stupid!" She said to him aggressively.

"Glad to know I'm behaving like me then." Tony smirked moving over to the bar and pouring himself a glass of scotch "Want a drink?"

"No, I don't want a drink!" Pepper said, looking to Rhodey who was sat on the sofa with a coffee "Rhodey, you tell him that he was stupid."

"It was risky, but he'd already tested the mark one." Rhodey said, eliciting a look of shock from Pepper.

"That wasn't the mark one? You've done this before?" She said, pulling out her PDA and tapping in a few commands "That's it, you're going on a vacation, get this out of your system."

"You coming with me?" Tony said with a smirk "Fine, tell you what. I won't take the suit out again without consulting you first, okay? And then if someone gets killed because Iron Man doesn't show up, it's on you and not me."

"Fine." Pepper said before realising what he'd said "Wait, what? No way Tony! You're being irrational. You've just had a near death experience, you're not quite with it all mentally yet."

"More than you." Tony said, looking over to Rhodey as he took a sip of his scotch "Was she like this when I was out?"

"Worse." Rhodey said "Something about hating job hunting."

"Okay, well, I'm going downstairs." Tony said "The armour ran well but the flight controls were kind of sluggish, needs fixing. Besides, I came up with a unit the armour can be outfitted with when I was on the plane."

Before Pepper had a chance to object, Tony ran back down the stairs, taking his drink with him. Pepper looked at the stairs blankly before looking at Rhodey with a look that could kill.

"You're encouraging him." She said to him.

"No I'm not." Rhoday said "I just know Tony well enough to know that if you try to stop him doing something, he'll do it more. If you just let him get on with it though, you can curb his behaviour a bit."

Before Pepper could reply, there was a knock at the door. She moved to the door and opened it. There was a red haired woman in a black leather body suit with silver devices on her wrists. She had two men wearing blue body suits, the two men having the image of a circle with a large bird in it. All three of them had a hand gun on their left hip, the woman having a second one on her right.

"Sorry, can I help you?" Pepper said, not sure what to make of the people in the uniforms.

"You can show us to Tony Stark." The woman in the body suit said in a thick Russian accent "My superior wishes to talk to him."

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Stark is busy." Pepper said "If your superior wants to see him, he or she will have to make an appointment."

"You misunderstood me. My superior has ordered me to collect Mr. Stark. I have official orders to escort him if it will make you more at ease." The Russian woman said as one of the men pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Pepper "Now, if you will please show me to Mr. Stark."

Pepper sighed, finally relenting. These guys at least looked official. She led them through and down the stairs, noticing Rhodey seemed to have disappeared from the living room, probably out to put his cup in the kitchen. She punched in a code on the key pad by the door, which slid open. She led the three people through to wear Tony was, finding him sat at a touch monitor, apparently working on his new design.

"Okay Jarvis, fit those new ARCs to the mark one and mark two, let's avoid them draining power from the one attached to my heart, okay?" He said, apparently oblivious to the presence of the other people "Then begin construction on the new unit, bring it in here afterwards. We can test it later."

"Yes sir." Jarvis said "Now, would you like me to activate the coffee machine for you and your guests."

"No thanks Jarvis, they won't be staying long." Tony said, turning around "Ahh, Miss. Romanoff. Or is it Romanova? That's the terrible thing about tapping into my system; Jarvis can reverse the tap and get information from your system too. After all, I designed it, though I never knew it was for someone so hot. Then again, it wasn't for _you_, was it?"

"General Fury wishes to see you immediately." Romanoff said "You will come with us now, Mr. Stark."

"Please, call me Tony." He replied, grinning as he finished his scotch "Before I come with you though, I want to know one thing; why didn't Fury send his top guy? Where's the red, white and blue boy scout?"

"If you are referring to Captain America, he is unavailable at the minute." Romanoff said "Now, come with me."

"Fine." Tony said, beginning to follow her out "At least you look better. Better dress sense, too."

Romanoff was silent as she led Tony through to a car waiting outside. They got in and it set off. It took about half and hour to get to the airfield where a futuristic looking jet was sat. Tony grinned.

"I see you've got one of my XR-79's." He said "Gets you from A to B fast, huh?"

Romanoff said nothing as she led him into the jet. He sighed to himself. She'd been more of a conversationalist at his party. Much more interesting. It was another three quarters of an hour, during which his only conversation was with a steward who got them all a cup of coffee, and even then it was only to tell the guy he wanted cream and two sugars, before the jet began to slow down. He looked out the window, only half surprised by what he saw.

There was a large floating object, similar to an aircraft carrier, in their immediate path. It seemed to have half a dozen large thrusters based on his repulsor technology, three on each side. A couple of minutes later, the jet landed on the flight deck and Tony was shown out of the jet as the section of the flight deck it landed on lowered into the carrier. Once inside, he was led through the hanger and into an office a deck down. Inside, the man with the eye patch he'd met on the plane was stood there with a glass of water.

"Tony Stark." He said, turning around "I'm General Nick Fury. Welcome to SHIELD."


	9. You're going to build us an armour

"So, Mr. Stark, I suppose I don't need to tell you what SHIELD is." Fury said as he finished his glass of water, moving over to a water cooler and pouring himself another glass "Would you like a drink?"

"Got any scotch?" Tony quipped, eliciting what almost looked like a smile from Fury.

"No kid, sorry." Fury replied "We might be able to find you a coffee though, that good enough?"

"Yeah, sure. Cream and two sugars if you've got it." Tony said, Fury nodding to one of the men behind Tony, who walked out of the room "So, what do you Strategic Hazard, uh, whatever the rest was, boys want with me?"

"Simply put, we want your help." Fury said as the man returned, handing Tony a plastic cup "Come on, let's take a walk."

Fury led Tony out of the room, Romanoff and one of the men close behind them. Fury led Tony to an elevator, swiping a key card to gain access then hitting the button for the third level.

"You see, SHIELD isn't the only directorate in the world." Fury said as the lift rapidly descended and he led Tony out of the doors as they opened, ending in what appeared to be a lab "In fact, it was created for a specific reason; to combat Hydra."

"Hydra?" Tony said, confused as Fury pressed some controls at a monitor bringing up an image of a skull with six tentacles "I didn't see any mention of them."

"You wouldn't have; they're not on the database unless you have top level clearance, which our hacker didn't have, hence no information on them. They were formed during World War II by Japanese Imperialists. However, they didn't become a problem until fifty years ago, twenty years after the organisation's formation, when this man took control." Fury said, bringing up an image of a bald man with a monocle and a number of veins prominent on his head "His name is Wolfgang von Strucker, a German and former Nazi soldier, and the image here was taken forty five years ago. This is him now."

Fury pressed a button, the image shifting, showing the same man with no outward signs of aging.

"You're kidding, right?" Tony said "He looks exactly the same."

"Strucker has a virus with some interesting mutagenic properties. It's called Deathspore and was engineered by some of our best scientists forty years ago. However, they messed up and it gave him some degree of invulnerability, a healing factor which means that what he can't brush off with the invulnerability he can get back up from within a matter of moments." Fury said "However, that's not the worst bit. He can release the virus, which has gestated in him, causing him to be a carrier. He controls the intensity, meaning it could stun, paralyse or even kill the victims. However, he's not why you're here."

Fury pressed the button again, Strucker disappearing from the monitor and being replaced by a large mechanical suit with a star in the centre of the torso. There seemed to be a thin separation gap where the top of the front section could lift, apparently allowing for someone to get in.

"This is Hydra's latest advancement, the Crimson Dynamo." Fury said "We've got images but no specs, so we can't fight it. Which is where you come in."

"I'm afraid I'm not following." Tony said, taking a gulp of his coffee "How can I do anything about a super high tech suit of armour?"

"With _your_ armour." Fury said, seeing Tony's feigned expression of naivety "Don't play dumb, Stark. I've seen your system _and _I've seen what the armour can do to Hydra's guys. That's who was on the plane. So, as of right now, I'm putting you to work designing a new armour to take down the Crimson Dynamo for our guys to use."

"That's not going to work for me." Tony said "Iron Man stays with me. I designed it, I control its applications."

"You didn't just design it." Fury said "We ran Iron Man's voice through a de-scrambler and were rather surprised to find that the voice underneath was _yours._ Don't worry, we won't be telling anyone, so long as you build us a suit to take down the Crimson Dynamo."

Tony turned around for a moment, not sure what to do. On the one hand, he didn't want to build the suit for Fury, not being entirely sure of his intentions for the technology. On the other, he didn't want to be exposed, and he _certainly_ didn't want everyone to know about the armour.

"Tell you what, Fury, I'll cut you a deal." Tony said, finishing his coffee "I'll design and build a suit to fight the Dynamo, but _I_ use it, and I keep it afterwards."

"Fine." Fury said "You've got twenty four hours."

"Well, best get to work." Tony said, moving to the console and keying in several commands before pulling his phone from his pocket, pressing a button, causing a USB port to pop out which he plugged into the console "First, I need Jarvis up here."

A second later, Jarvis' avatar appeared in the room. Tony pressed a few commands before turning to Fury and Romanoff.

"Do you two mind? This stuff is pretty delicate material and I don't fancy having you looking over my shoulder." Tony said, turning back to Jarvis "Now, Jarvis, pull up armour remote pilot systems and equip the variable threat response unit to the Mark two."

"Sir, the Mark two suits customisation ports were damaged on the plane by weapons fire." Jarvis said "However, I can equip the unit to the Mark one suit."

"Do it." Tony said, a timer coming up on the monitor showing time until arrival "Two hours. Okay, let's get something rigged up so I can suit up here."

"Sir, perhaps Mr. Rhodes should test this unit." Jarvis said.

"No Jarvis, I'm not having this unit becoming some 'War Machine'." Tony said.

"Sir, with all due respect, that analogy is suitable for the unit." Jarvis said, getting an annoyed look from Tony "Obviously, I'm mistaken."

"Yeah." Tony said, moving over to a communications terminal and pressed the button in "I'm sending down a list of stuff I need. Get it up here ASAP. I'm going after the Dynamo in two hours."

As he released the button, the hele carrier shook. The communications system chirped again.

"Sir, you don't have two hours." The voice on the other end said "The Dynamo's here."

Tony paced for a moment before turning to Jarvis.

"Change of plan." Tony said "How long until the portable armour's complete?"

"Twenty five minutes." Jarvis said "What are you thinking, sir?"

"As soon as it's complete, send it up. Don't worry about the gold trim, we can leave it silver for now." Tony said "How long will it take to get here, once it's completed?"

"Fifteen minutes, sir." Jarvis said "Will SHIELD's defences hold the Crimson Dynamo back for that long?"

"Let's hope so." Tony said "Otherwise, I'm as good as dead."


	10. Iron Man Vs The Crimson Dynamo

Tony rummaged around the desk in the lab, pulling a Bluetooth earpiece out of it. He quickly played with the settings on his phone before connecting it to the earpiece. He pressed a few controls on the phone, pulling up the application he'd designed to interact with Jarvis.

"Jarvis, how's the work going on finishing up the portable unit?" Tony asked as he left the lab, looking around cautiously before running across the hall and into what looked like an armoury, pulling off the panel for the locking mechanism and beginning to play with the mechanism.

"I am running safety checks now, sir." Jarvis said "Estimated time until it arrives at your location from now is twenty minutes."

"Screw safety checks, I could end up getting blown to bits if the Dynamo gets here while I don't have the armour." Tony said "I'll take a few blowouts in armour systems over that thanks Jarvis."

"Sir, I must insist that the checks go ahead." Jarvis said "The potential injury to yourself otherwise is great."

"Jarvis, sorry about this but I need that armour right now." Tony said "Safety over ride engage. Authorisation code one zero nine six two seven four."

"Safety over rides engaged." Jarvis said, his voice losing the personality it had had before "Preparing portable exo-skeletal multi-environment tactical suit for deployment. Launching in three… two… one. Suit away. ETA fifteen minutes."

"Divert all power to the thrusters, make the wait as short as possible and bring it straight here." Tony said "What's the ETA now?"

"Eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds." Jarvis said.

"Thanks Jarvis." Tony said "Disengage security override once I'm in the armour."

Tony moved from his position where he was stood to an empty cupboard with an electronic lock. He pressed the button on the headset again.

"Jarvis, I'm locking myself in a storage cupboard in the lab." He said "Using an oscillating code, base line 79324. Unlock the door when you're outside."

"Yes sir." Jarvis said as Tony entered the cupboard, pulling the panel off the lock and connecting his phone to it and beginning to type a code.

Tony sat in the cupboard for about ten minutes, waiting for the armour to arrive. His only worry was that the Dynamo would get to him before the armour. A second later, the door slid open revealing the armour. It had a predominantly red helmet, with a silver faceplate that was identical in design to the other armour. It had a red torso with the circular chest ARC glowing a pale blue. The arms and legs were silver with what looked like red boots. The armour turned around, mechanical sounds coming from it as the entire back of the armour opened up in front of him.

Tony stepped into the armour, the back closing behind him and resealing. A half second later, the HUD came online, giving him a readout of all power systems and his surroundings, as well as status of all other systems. They all seemed to be in working order, aside from the armour musculature servos, reading as 92% efficiency.

"Ok, Jarvis, you can return to normal running mode now. Sorry about that." Tony said "Now, where's the Dynamo?"

"The Crimson Dynamo is one level above us." Jarvis said "Bringing up a map of the helecarrier now."

"Thanks." Tony said, looking at the map "Okay, engage thrusters. We're taking the fast way up."

The armour lifted up off the floor before shooting up through the ceiling. In front of Tony was a large metal door. According to the readouts, the Dynamo was on the other side of the door. As Tony began to move towards the door, it flew off from where it was attached, hitting Tony and sending him flying backwards and to the floor.

As he pushed the door off of him and got up, he was met with the sight of the Dynamo. It stood at about ten feet, being about four and a half foot wide. It raised it's left arm, a mini gun coming out of the side and beginning to spin before firing a barrage of bullets at Tony that bounced off, hitting the walls.

"Sir, his attack is causing small cracks in the armour." Jarvis said "Armour integrity at 90% and falling. There's approximately 19 seconds until armour integrity is completely compromised."

"Divert all power to chest ARC, prepare to discharge the excess energy on my mark." Tony said, hearing the power build up in the circular chest ARC "Okay Jarvis, hit it!"

The blue beam shot out of the armour chest ARC, slamming into the Dynamo and hitting it in the chest, knocking it backwards and causing the left arm to jerk up, spraying bullets into the ceiling.

"Okay, it's staggered, give me a readout of the systems we can see?" Tony said, looking at the readout of the Dynamo's systems "Jarvis, what are the flight systems on the Dynamo like?"

"External flight pack, stabilisation built in." Jarvis said "The power system gives it a flaw though; it is mainly routed through one cable, visible from the back of the neck."

"Odds of the pilot surviving if he was, I don't know, sent into a free fall without the flight pack?" Tony said, noting the Dynamo shaping up again "Quickly Jarvis, I give it a few seconds before it's ready to hit again."

"There is a 96% chance the pilot would survive with minimal injury." Jarvis said "The armour, however, would be destroyed."

"Thank you, that's just what I wanted." Tony said "Divert all power to repulsors and flight systems."

"Yes sir." Jarvis said as the readouts changed to reflect the rerouted power.

"Get me behind and blast the cable when I've got it lined up." Tony said, lifting off of the floor and getting into position behind the Dynamo before it could spin around and firing at the cable, blasting it apart "Okay, now, let's take out the trash. Plot a direct course out of the helecarrier, via the Dynamo."

"Yes sir." Jarvis said as the armour charged forward, ramming into the Dynamo and sending it flying through the wall, staying with it until they reached the outer hull of the helecarrier and the Dynamo began to plummet to the ground below "I believe the term 'look out below' is best used here, sir."

"Looks like you've got your sense of humour back." Tony said, grinning under the faceplate "Take us back in. Guessing Fury will want to hear what happened."


	11. I'm working on something new

Tony walked into Fury's office, still wearing the armour. It had a fair amount of cosmetic damage, mainly from the Dynamo's first hit. The odds were high he wouldn't be using that armour again for a while. He stopped in front of Fury's desk, which he was pretty sure had moved a few feet to the left in the last half hour, the armour faceplate flipping up as he stopped.

"Your little red problem's been dealt with." Tony said with a smirk "Got to say, it was simpler than I expected. Gave this armour a good test run though."

"Excellent." Fury said, almost cracking a smile before gesturing to one of the chairs opposite him "You want to sit down or are you going to keep standing there?"

"Not sure if sitting in your nice little chair in this thing's such a great idea." Tony quipped, gesturing to himself and the armour "I will take everything you've got on your system about me though."

"Funny." Fury replied "Now, I want to talk to you about a project I'm working on."

"I'm not a project, Fury, and Iron Man is _my_ project, no one else's." Tony said, turning to walk out "Give me a call when you get that into your head."

Tony began to walk out, the faceplate flipping down as he reached the door. A second after he did, it slid open to reveal Romanoff stood there.

"You want to get out of the way?" Tony said "I'd hate to have to hurt you."

"I'd like to see you try." She said, not budging "Trust me, better men than you have tried."

"Ooh, that hurt. You know, you'd be great at selling to the military brass types." Tony said, the faceplate flipping up to reveal his grin "You ever get tired of working for Fury, give me a call. I think you've got the number."

"You will listen to General Fury or I will _make _you listen." Romanoff said, holding her ground firmly as Tony chuckled to himself and turned to face Fury.

"You get five minutes." Tony said "I'm a busy man, I have other things to do than play with you."

"That's fine." Fury said "I want to talk to you about this project. Well, it's more of an initiative. You sure you don't want to sit down? I can guarantee the chair can support the weight."

Tony thought about it for a moment before sitting down in one of the chairs, surprised when it didn't give way under the combined weight of him and the armour. Fury moved to the water cooler, grabbing two plastic cups and filling them up, handing one to Romanoff and holding one out to Tony who took it after pausing for a moment. Fury went back to the cooler, getting himself a drink before sitting opposite Tony as Romanoff walked round the desk and stood behind Fury, sipping her drink.

"Okay, well, you're a minute and a half into your five minutes. Jarvis is keeping track of the time for me, he'll tell me when it's up." Tony said "So, what's this 'initiative' of yours?"

"It's a team, with special powers and special privileges, charged with combating Hydra and other threats that are outside the abilities of most groups and individuals." Fury said "We've got it partially assembled, and we want Iron Man. You interested?"

"Send the details to Pepper. I'll go over it with her and Rhodey. But there's one condition." Tony said "You want Iron Man? You get Tony Stark as well. I am Iron Man, you can't have just the armour."

"Fine, kid." Fury said, turning to Romanoff "Natasha, please show Mr. Stark out."

"Yes sir." Romanoff said, moving around as Tony stood up "If you'd like to follow me, Mr. Stark."

"I'm good." Tony said, the faceplate snapping down again "I've got my own way home. Jarvis can get me there faster than your jets anyway."

Before Fury or Romanoff could say anything, Tony turned and walked out before going into the elevator then exiting through the hole made when he'd tossed the Dynamo out.

…..

Fifteen minutes later, he flew back into the lab, landing with a thud as Rhodey and Pepper walked into the lab. Rhodey looked at the armour with a grin while Pepper had a slightly horrified look on her face as she noted the damage to the suit.

"Okay, just give me a second to get this thing off." Tony said "Jarvis, engage armour removal programme."

A second later, the back of the armour opened up, Tony stepping out of it before it began folding down until it was in the shape of a red metallic suitcase. Tony picked up the case and set it down on the table before turning to Rhodey and Pepper and grinning.

"Well, I'd say that armour got a good test run." He said "Pepper, you should've received some files from a Nick Fury. Did they come through?"

"Files? Was I meant to have got some files?" Pepper said, apparently still gobsmacked "Well, I was too busy worrying about my boss being off on some government super secret base fighting a giant robot suit in his own suit which had never been tested."

"Come on Potts, we both know you were just worried about me, it's okay, you can admit it." Tony said, grinning before turning to Rhodey "Rhodey, you're my head of security, do me a favour and get the internal security systems on this place above the security systems at Stark Industries. I don't want anyone hacking in, breaking in or even walking in without my permission."

"You've got it." Rhodey said "Jarvis, think you can help out with that?"

"I'll do my best, sir." Jarvis said as his holographic avatar appeared "Mr. Stark, will your guests be requiring refreshments? I can engage the automated equipment if you so desire."

"No thanks, they need to go and get on." Tony said "Sorry you two, but I've got a few personal things I want to get to work on."

"So personal you can't tell us?" Pepper said.

"No offence, I'm just playing this one close to my chest." Tony said "I'll catch up with you later."

"And you promise to tell us what you're working on when you do?" Pepper asked.

"Sure." Tony said "I'll see you later."

"Okay, have fun with your toys." Pepper said, walking out.

"I'll catch you later Tony." Rhodey said before following Pepper.

Tony moved over to a computer terminal, quickly keying in his code to access all ghost drives attached to his home computer system.

"Okay, Jarvis, I'm starting a new project. Open new project file, save different components to different ghost drives. Label the main file mark three." He said "Bring up an interactive hologram of the mark two, let's start with what we've got."

A holographic representation of the mark two armour, barring colour, appeared in the middle of the room. Tony walked over to it and looked it over, walking around it slowly as he took in the design elements.

"Okay, let's change a few things. First, give me an exploded view of the gauntlets." He said, the armour disappearing except the gauntlets which enlarged and slowly separated so he could see all the components "Okay, give me a miniaturised Stark TR-72 missile with an appropriately scaled launcher, capable of being retracted. Put it in the left gauntlet. In the right, add a small, six barrelled gun around the wrist, capable of retracting into the gauntlet with four .22 calibre shots in each barrel. That way they'll disable, not kill."

"Anything else you'd like, sir?" Jarvis said "Perhaps a light sabre?"

"I should never have let you watch Star Wars." Tony replied "How's the neural interface coming along?"

"The simulations are being run now." Jarvis said "Would you like me to give you a update on its progress?"

"Just construct a prototype and install it in the mark two." Tony said "I'll test it. And fix the portable armour, that could come in handy in future. Now, I'm going to hit the hay. Save the mark three file for completion later and encrypt it. Night Jarvis."

"Good night, sir." Jarvis said, as Tony walked out and the avatar faded, the lights going out as it did.


	12. Just what are you working on?

Igor Vanko sat in his small, cluttered lab in the basement of his Russian suburb home, working on his latest project. His son, Anton, was upstairs trying to fix the heating. While not nearly the genius his father was Anton was especially gifted. However, he'd never been given the same opportunities his father had been given. And squandered.

His latest project was based upon his most recent squandered opportunity. He'd been working in America, for a company called Stark International. He'd found some interesting designs and decided to take them to adapt for himself. After the head of the company had got wind of it, Vanko had been fired on the spot and all properties related to the designs had been confiscated. Fortunately, he'd copied them all and had then returned to his homeland with his son, knowing that his government would never extradite him, not with his skills.

As Igor finished the current system, he paused to look at his work. It was a suit of dull grey armour with a glowing circular power source in the centre of the chest piece. There were shoulder pads at the top of each arm and gauntlets that looked slightly too thick to be part of the armour around the wrist. The helmet had a mane of green hair, tied into a pony tail, attached to the helmet with it's black face plate with little more than the two eyes.

He'd also constructed one of his own innovations as part of the design; two long, flexible metal whips, one on each gauntlet, sharpened to the extreme, capable of retracting into the gauntlets and able to be super charged with energy. Due to the energy requirements, there was a miniaturised version of the power source housed inside each gauntlet.

As he looked at the armour, Anton walked in, a bottle of vodka in one hand with two small glasses in the other. He set the glasses down on a small table, pouring some of the clear liquid into each glass, putting the bottle down before picking up the two glasses and walking over to his father. He handed his father one of the glasses before drinking his own vodka.

"Thank you." Igor said, seeing his son looking at the suit "This is it Anton. This is what I've been working on. My gift to you; the ability to repay the man who caused us to have to return to this hell hole."

"Using his own weapons as well." Anton said "Father, you've outdone yourself."

"Thank you son." Igor said "Now, go and show Anthony Stark he should never have punished me for trying to improve the quality of life for me and my family."

…..

Tony pulled himself out of his bed. At least, he was pretty sure it was his bed. After he'd left the lab the night before, he'd decided to hit a nightclub and ended up drinking what most would consider an excessive amount of alcohol. All he knew was there were two women he recognised as super models still asleep in the bed, so he had to presume it was a good night.

He walked down the stairs into the kitchen, scratching his chest. He hated wearing a shirt to bed, he always came up in a rash. He'd need to get to work on getting the junk that was still left from the explosion out of his chest so he could have the ARC taken out and go back to sleeping without his shirt when he had company.

He walked over to the bar and poured himself a scotch, taking a sip as he looked at the time. 8 A.M.

Rhodey would kill him for drinking this early, and he hated to think what Pepper would do. Actually, he had a lot of fun imagining what she _might_ do, however unlikely his imaginings were. As he considered it, he heard the front door open and close before Rhodey walked in, holding two cups of McDonalds coffee and a paper bag with some food.

"Figured you might want some food and a drink." He said "I see you already have the latter taken care of though."

"Only live once." Tony replied, downing the rest of his scotch before taking one of the cups from Rhodey and taking a sip "Black no sugar, Rhodey, you know I have it with cream and three sugars."

"Yes, which is why that's my one. Want to swap?" Rhodey asked, smirking as he put the other drink and the paper bag on the counter "You want the sausage and egg muffin or the bacon roll?"

"I'll have the muffin." Tony said, switching the coffees "So, how come you're here so early, with breakfast no less."

"Well, Pepper wanted me to come and find out what this new project of yours' is, and I haven't had breakfast yet." Rhodey said, pulling the bacon roll out of the bag before sliding the bag over to Tony "Then again, I'm guessing you have company, given the shirt."

"You know me so well." Tony said, pulling out the muffin and taking a bite "Okay, whoever says McDonalds breakfasts suck has never had one of these."

"Yeah, well, anyway, what is it you're working on Tony?" Rhodey asked "I know it's got resources being diverted to it like crazy, so guessing another suit. If you want to keep that stuff secret, take resources little by little."

"Funny, I thought that with it being my company and my stuff, I could take as much as I liked." Tony replied, getting up and pressing a control on the wall "Jarvis, call pepper and tell her to dry clean and press the clothes of my guests. Then get her to ask them to leave. Give them something about me going out of town on business."

"Very good sir." Jarvis' voice said as Tony walked out, grabbing his coffee as he did before going down the stairs to the lab, calling back to Rhodey "You coming buddy?"

Rhodey took one last bite of his bacon roll before setting it down on the counter and following Tony down the stairs. When he got down there, he saw Tony had wasted no time in pulling up a holographic mock up of the current design he was working on. Cosmetically, it looked similar to the mark two, albeit slightly more streamlined on most of the suit and the gauntlets being slightly bulkier around the wrists and fore arms.

"It's about two thirds into the design phase." Tony said "I'm planning on using the new neural interface I've designed. I'm testing it in the mark two, the mark one's been fitted with it, more for the sake of keeping up to date than because of any intention to use it."

"Right…" Rhodey said, not entirely convinced.

Tony was a lot of things, but one for keeping things up to date as opposed to replacing them, he was not. He was the one who had once had a perfectly good Porsche sent to the scrap heap because it was a year old and he considered that too old. Tony wouldn't admit it, but he was keeping the mark one because he wanted something to play around with, rather than breaking his shiny red and gold armour. Before he could call Tony out on it, Jarvis' holographic avatar appeared in between the two men.

"Mr. Stark, it appears there is some trouble over at your company." Jarvis said "There are some men in green body suits trying to break in. What appears to be the Crimson Dynamo is with them."

"Okay, tell them that, uh," Tony said, not sure of what to say for a second before deciding "Tell them I'm sending my new bodyguard to help deal with the problem."

"New bodyguard?" Rhodey asked "I wasn't aware of any changes in my department."

"There haven't been any buddy." Tony said, turning to Jarvis "Prep the mark two for suit up."

"Yes sir." Jarvis replied, a section of the floor opening up as a large amount of machinery came out of it.

"Right." Rhodey said "Hey, tin man, get the mark one ready as well, it still has that thing you wanted me to test on it, right Tony?"

"Yeah." Tony replied, stepping into the middle of the machinery that had came out of the floor, adding as the suit was assembled on him "And you are not testing it right now."

"What if you need back up?" Rhodey asked as the armour was completely assembled on Tony, leaving just his face visible through the open faceplate.

"Then I'll call." Tony said, the gold faceplate snapping down "Don't wait up."

As he said that, he lifted slightly into the air before shooting out of the large skylight in his ceiling.


End file.
